Haymarket agrees sale of PistonHeads to CarGurus

[jeremyc]

Beefmeister said:

Sford said:

Is the classifieds really worth that much though? The searching isn't the best and while it used to be my 'go to' I have never actually bought a car from it. More to get a feel of value of cars when looking at other sources like forums that I'm on (TZ-UK, VX220.org.uk or other owner specific forums to the item I am looking to buy).

I believe it's the third biggest in the UK behind Auto Trader and eBay.

More significant is the sector of the market the PH classifieds service, and the quality and value of the audience that visit them because of that. It may be the third biggest in terms of audience size or number of adverts, but I would guess that it might be higher in terms of transaction values through the adverts.

[Fittster]

jeremyc said:

Beefmeister said:

Sford said:

Is the classifieds really worth that much though? The searching isn't the best and while it used to be my 'go to' I have never actually bought a car from it. More to get a feel of value of cars when looking at other sources like forums that I'm on (TZ-UK, VX220.org.uk or other owner specific forums to the item I am looking to buy).

I believe it's the third biggest in the UK behind Auto Trader and eBay.

More significant is the sector of the market the PH classifieds service, and the quality and value of the audience that visit them because of that. It may be the third biggest in terms of audience size or number of adverts, but I would guess that it might be higher in terms of transaction values through the adverts.

Do you pay more for an add if the price of the car is high (what about POA)?

Looking at the car buying section of PH, all the links to recommended cars go off to autotrader.

[jeremyc]

Fittster said:

Looking at the car buying section of PH, all the links to recommended cars go off to autotrader.

That's because most of the Car Buying forum is full of threads on leasing Golfs or finding sub £10K cars.

PH classifieds is not stuffed full of Ford Focuses and Fiestas like AutoTrader, so it's not surprising the thread participants have to link there.

Now, the find me a Ferrari/Porsche/Lamborghini/McLaren on the other hand ....

[CrippsCorner]

Beefmeister said:

Sford said:

Is the classifieds really worth that much though? The searching isn't the best and while it used to be my 'go to' I have never actually bought a car from it. More to get a feel of value of cars when looking at other sources like forums that I'm on (TZ-UK, VX220.org.uk or other owner specific forums to the item I am looking to buy).

I believe it's the third biggest in the UK behind Auto Trader and eBay.

Bigger than Gumtree?

I have actually bought off PistonHeads... mind you it was a stter lol. I don't really bother with it much anymore, however that's just when I genuinely browsing, I'd probably check in if I was actually buying. But, I find 90% of the adverts are the same as AutoTrader anyway.

[ashleyman]

Trying to browse PH to buy is rubbish, at least it is using Safari on Mac. I tried a few times and gave up, if it wasn't loading screens, results not showing or options not being saved it was stupid coding issues.

For example, let's say I'm looking to buy a BMW M4.

Set the make to BMW.
Go to Models. Press 'De-select All' (ready to tick M4 only) it doesn't de-select all, it just de-selects 1 series. So now I manually have to go through and deselect all models except F82 M4 - thats 61 extra clicks)

Year From 2017 To 2018.

Gearbox Type Automatic

VIEW RESULTS

Sort by Date Added - Newest First. Does it load? Nope, I just get this stupid loading icon.

Refresh the page and just look at them in the standard order.

Go to look on Page 2. Does it load? Nope, get the same spinning icon.

How is that any good?

[uk66fastback]

I'm using Safari on a Mac, I will try that now ...


Exactly as described!

Edited by uk66fastback on Tuesday 11th December 16:05

[R4PID]

Sford said:

Is the classifieds really worth that much though? The searching isn't the best and while it used to be my 'go to' I have never actually bought a car from it. More to get a feel of value of cars when looking at other sources like forums that I'm on (TZ-UK, VX220.org.uk or other owner specific forums to the item I am looking to buy).

Top 6 Automotive site in the WORLD.



More interesting stats here.

[Craikeybaby]

I am hopeful that CarGurus will assign some developer resource to PH - and ideally listen to the community on how to deploy it.

The forums do not need to change, the ads need to be better and less resource hungry and a few small bug fixes. It does not need to change into Reddit/Snapchat/FaceBook etc!

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Craikeybaby said:

I am hopeful that CarGurus will assign some developer resource to PH - and ideally listen to the community on how to deploy it.

Sadly, I think they will care for it even less than Haymarket have. If their reason for purchase is the classifieds then they could conceivably shut down the forums altogether rather than investing in them.

[D-Angle]

Can I throw in a request to actively avoid making articles out of 'teaser' images of new models? I know it fills a space but come on. It's a cynical practice designed to make sites like PH devote column inches to a new model without offering anything actually newsworthy.

[Brainpox]

D-Angle said:

Can I throw in a request to actively avoid making articles out of 'teaser' images of new models? I know it fills a space but come on. It's a cynical practice designed to make sites like PH devote column inches to a new model without offering anything actually newsworthy.

It's all about views and ad revenue. No American-led website is interested in sacrificing revenue for quality articles.

[Bullitt Five-Oh]

D-Angle said:

Can I throw in a request to actively avoid making articles out of 'teaser' images of new models? I know it fills a space but come on. It's a cynical practice designed to make sites like PH devote column inches to a new model without offering anything actually newsworthy.

Filler content increasing clicks is key on websites like this.

[zarjaz1991]

I am sure the forums will close at some point.

Forums are a dying breed, nobody new ever joins them, and no sane company will invest vast quantities of money into them - especially not PH once they realise how archaic and messy the forum platform here now is. It'll end up being more profitable to shut it down. They just want the classifieds anyhow.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Best case scenario is the new owners allow the Gassing Station to stumble along on life support like Haymarket have. Worst case is they shut it down.

I'll be very sad if that happens - PH has been part of my life for over 17 years now.

[RobDickinson]

zarjaz1991 said:

I am sure the forums will close at some point.

Forums are a dying breed, nobody new ever joins them, and no sane company will invest vast quantities of money into them - especially not PH once they realise how archaic and messy the forum platform here now is. It'll end up being more profitable to shut it down. They just want the classifieds anyhow.

No one will come for the classifieds alone and not the news / articles either.. The forum is the golden goose

[mattwhite709]

I have started reading the articles alot less on here now for one reason.

When you open the article on your phone the pictures need to be a lot bigger, more of them and you should be able click on the picture and be able to make the picture a take up the whole screen.

This problem does not affect any other websites on the net and it makes PH feel really old and out of date.

Does anyone feel the same?

[MDMA .]

[redacted]

[selym]

Whoever is taking over, give the forum a couple of turns of the crank handle - it's spluttering.

[mike9009]

RobDickinson said:

zarjaz1991 said:

I am sure the forums will close at some point.

Forums are a dying breed, nobody new ever joins them, and no sane company will invest vast quantities of money into them - especially not PH once they realise how archaic and messy the forum platform here now is. It'll end up being more profitable to shut it down. They just want the classifieds anyhow.

No one will come for the classifieds alone and not the news / articles either.. The forum is the golden goose

I agree. The forums quite often come up in search results even if you are not looking for automotive content. If you need advice about any manner of subject and someone on PHs probably has already asked the question … hence it attracts a lot of traffic from all over the place. (IMO)

[So]

mike9009 said:

RobDickinson said:

zarjaz1991 said:

I am sure the forums will close at some point.

Forums are a dying breed, nobody new ever joins them, and no sane company will invest vast quantities of money into them - especially not PH once they realise how archaic and messy the forum platform here now is. It'll end up being more profitable to shut it down. They just want the classifieds anyhow.

No one will come for the classifieds alone and not the news / articles either.. The forum is the golden goose

I agree. The forums quite often come up in search results even if you are not looking for automotive content. If you need advice about any manner of subject and someone on PHs probably has already asked the question … hence it attracts a lot of traffic from all over the place. (IMO)

This is why PH is such a good resource. There are people on here from such diverse walks of life. I have received advice on everything from holidays to hernias (yes, someone on here diagnosed a hernia for me) and everything in between. Hopefully very occasionally something I have said has helped someone else.

So I would agree that the forum is the golden goose. But I could very well imagine the new owners not agreeing